Mangaluru: The countdown for the much-awaited Mangaluru City Corporation Mayor and Deputy Mayoral elections has finally begun. The elections will be held on Friday, February 28.
The elections are being held for the 21st Council Mayor and Dpeuty Mayor and four Standing Committee members, in presence of the Mysore Regional Commissioner.
Though the elections were to be held on November 12, 2019, the confusion and chaos over the reservation delayed the election for the posts of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
This time, the BJP, which has 44 seats in the 60-seat council has fielded candidates that have clear majority. If the Congress opts not to field any candidates then the BJP canddiates will be elected unanimously.
However, Congress sources have said that Keshav Maroli will be their Mayor candidate and Zeenath will be their Deputy Mayoral candidate.
BJP’s Mayor candidate-Diwakar Pandeshwar, who represents Cantonment (ward 46) is the third time Corporator and is considered as a pro-active member, who treads extra mile to respond to the demands of the people.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor candidate Vedavathi is the second time corporator, who represents Kulai (ward -9). She had won the MCC election bagging highest number of votes in the entire MCC.
Though the names of Diwkar Pandeshwar and Vedavathi were making rounds, the BJP leaders had not confirmed the names of the candidates till Thursday evening.
The Mayoral post has been reserved for Backward Class ‘A’ while Deputy Mayor post has been reserved for General (woman).
The BJP has 44 seats, Congress has 14 and SDPI has two seats in the council.
Entry of public restricted
As the elections were scheduled to be held from 11 am onwards, the enetry of the general public into the MCC premises has been restricted till afternoon. However, the general public were irked by the fact that the election process did not start even till 12 noon.
